Michigan Hunters

[az4life]

Watching a show on PBS in Detroit tonight and saw some really nice bucks that were taken in 2005. several over 190" and the hunters had a chance to "tell the tale" at the awards ceremony.

I was rather surprised that many of them took risky shots and did not have any idea how big the animal they shot at was. of them said things like " I saw him following a doe and he was moving pretty fast so I had to pull up and shoot real fast. I did not know it had 19 points, (eastern) till I found it dead." Not one of them said they knew how many points or guessed the size before shooting when most of them were shot under 50 yards, it seems a bit scarey.

 

Wonder if that is why the have to wear orange? And more hunting accidents.

 

Glad the CWT group is more into target identification than MI hunters.

[Shiras]

I think that can be contributed to the mass amount of deer that live up there. That is not to excuse the hunter, but rather an explanation for their hastiness.

 

I work with a guy/friend that is from and still goes back to Buffalo county WI. (where he grew up on his mom and dad's farm). It is the #1 B&C county in the USA for Whitetail. He has told me stories of 400+ deer on his parent's corn field looking out the kitchen window.

 

That would be a nice problem to have.

-Shiras

[billrquimby]

I've hunted whitetails in Michigan, Illinois and Minnesota, and all my hunting there was done from tree blinds in thick timber. The bucks I saw gave me only a couple of seconds to decide whether to shoot or not. I've also hunted from blinds in Texas, but the country was open and we could be more selective.

 

Bill

[bobbyo]

I hunted northern Michigan once in 1986. Coming from someone who has only hunted in the west, I can say I was in a state of Shock and Awe First off every single person on the major highway is in hunter orange. I mean everybody. Thousands of trucks and cars all hunters, no civillians, in a major traffic jam. It was the Woodstock of hunting. I think I remember the radio station hyping the hunt claiming there was over 3/4 of a million people taking part and updating the hunt with an actual death count from hunting accidents. (The last I heard from the DJ is that it was a good year with only 3 deaths.)

At first light of opening day, I am not exaggerating, World War Three breaks out. I was out of my mind with fear. I couldn't believe so many shots could be fired without a stray hitting me. People were shooting bursts of shoots. They were shooting clips. 5, 10, 15 ROUNDS AT A TIME. They seem to be coming from single weapons. Most hunters that I saw were carrying AR 15 type assult rifles. I believe the only explanation for this onslaght was that most hunters were drive hunting and single individuals were trying to fill tags for their whole camp. I can't confirm this though because I was hiding in a ground blind trying not to pee my pants. The great battle would die down for lunch and then begin again around 3:30.

You may did find this ironical. With the Thousands and thousands of rounds shot. I only saw one extremely frightened spike in three days of hunting. I see him, I raise my rifle, I pull the trigger, I turn the safety off and run after the deer. I pursue him up an embankment. I see him 100 yards away. I hear a single shot( I believe the only one of the hunt). I hear some whoops. I walk dejectedly back to my trench. I mean blind.

When the Michigan hunter says

" I saw him following a doe and he was moving pretty fast so I had to pull up and shoot real fast. I did not know it had 19 points, (eastern) till I found it dead."

I think I understand why.

Bob

[DesertBull]

What is more shocking to me is that there was a hunting show on the liberal biased PBS!

[az4life]

Well I see some of you have experienced a Michigan hunt. It just surprised me that most of the hunters admitted they did not clearly Identify the target and after they saw a their buck, it was a few seconds till they shot it. Lots were taken with bows, and shotguns and muzzleloaders.

By the way, I said it was on PBS, and I think I made a mistake on that. It was on Detroit public television? Maybe it was a public access station?

I started to understand why a relative who hunted AZ with me years ago complained it was so hard out here in the west.

 

Glad to be home again!